Support for automatic update of credentials in a credential store

Elytron now automates adding and updating a credential to a previously defined credential store when you configure a credential reference that specifies both the store and clear-text attributes.

With this update, you do not need to add a credential to an existing credential store before you can reference it from a credential-reference. The automated process reduces the number of steps you need to perform for referencing new credentials in different subsystems.

New role mapper regex-role-mapper in Elytron

Elytron now provides a new role mapper, regex-role-mapper, to define a regular expression (regex) based mapping of security roles.

You can use regex-role-mapper to translate a list of roles to simpler roles. For example:

With regex-role-mapper, you do not need to implement your own custom component to translate security roles.

Accessing IP address of remote client

You can now add the source-address-role-decoder role decoder to the elytron subsystem. By configuring this role decoder, you can gain additional information from a remote client when making authorization decisions.

The source-address-role-decoder extracts the IP address of a remote client and checks that it matches the IP address specified in the pattern attribute or the source-address attribute. If the IP address of the remote client matches the IP address specified in either attribute, the roles attribute then assigns roles to the user. When you have configured source-address-role-decoder, you can reference it in the role-decoder attribute of the security domain.

The aggregate-role-decoder role decoder

The aggregate-role-decoder consists of two or more role decoders. After each specified role decoder completes its operation, it adds roles to the aggregate-role-decoder.

You can use aggregate-role-decoder to make authorization decisions by adding role decoders that assign roles for a user. Further, aggregate-role-decoder provides you with a convenient way to aggregate the roles returned from each role decoder.

Using TLS protocol version 1.3 with JDK 11

Elytron now provides the ability to use Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol version 1.3 for JBoss EAP running against JDK 11.

TLS 1.3 is disabled by default. You can enable TLS 1.3 by configuring the new cipher-suite-names attribute in the SSL Context resource definition in the elytron subsystem.

Compared with TLS 1.2, you might experience reduced performance when running TLS 1.3 with JDK 11. Diminished performance might occur when a very large number of TLS 1.3 requests are being made. A system upgrade to a newer JDK version can improve performance. Test your setup with TLS 1.3 for performance degradation before enabling it in production.

Enable support for the TLS 1.3 protocol with the OpenSSL provider for TLS

JBoss EAP 7.4 includes support for the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol version 1.3. The use of TLS 1.3 protocol with the OpenSSL provider for TLS is disabled by default.

You can enable support for the TLS 1.3 protocol with the OpenSSL provider for TLS by configuring the cipher-suite-names attribute in the ssl-context configuration.

Compared with TLS 1.2, you might experience reduced performance when running TLS 1.3 with JDK 11. Diminished performance might occur when a very large number of TLS 1.3 requests are being made. A system upgrade to a newer JDK version can improve performance. Test your setup with TLS 1.3 for performance degradation before enabling it in production.

Using SSH credentials to connect to a remote Git SSH repository

With JBoss EAP 7.4, you can use SSH credentials to connect to a remote Git SSH repository. This repository can manage your server configuration data, properties files, and deployments.

You must use the elytron configuration file to specify SSH credentials. You can then start your standalone server instance and have a remote Git SSH repository manage your server configuration file history.

If necessary, you can generate SSH keys by using one of the following methods:

For information about connecting to a remote Git SSH repository, see Using a remote Git SSH repository.

New principal transformer added to the elytron subsystem

JBoss EAP 7.4 includes a new principal transformer, case-principal-transformer, in the elytron subsystem. You can use the case-principal-transformer to change a principal’s username to either uppercase or lowercase characters.

Ability to automatically generate a self-signed certificate

With JBoss EAP 7.4, you can automatically generate a self-signed certificate.

Use a self-signed certificate only in a test environment. Do not use a self-signed certificate in a production environment.

To use this new feature, in the undertow subsystem, update the configuration of the http-listener.

    batch
    /subsystem=undertow/server=default-server/https-listener=https:undefine-attribute(name=security-realm)
    /subsystem=undertow/server=default-server/https-listener=https:write-attribute(name=ssl-context,value=applicationSSC)
    run-batch
    reload

After you update the configuration, and if no keystore file exists, the first time JBoss EAP receives an HTTPS request, the system automatically generates a self-signed certificate. JBoss EAP logs a warning when a self-signed certificate is used.

Configuration of multiple security realms to support failover

With JBoss EAP 7.4, you can configure a failover security realm. If the security realm is not available, JBoss EAP uses the failover realm. The following code illustrates an example configuration:

    <failover-realm name="myfailoverrealm" delegate-realm="LdapRealm" failover-realm="LocalRealm" />

Distributed identities across multiple security realms

With JBoss EAP 7.4, you can configure a distributed security realm, which sequentially invokes a list of configured realms until a realm with the identity is found. The following code illustrates an example configuration:

    <distributed-realm name="mymainrealm" realms="realm1 realm2 realm3" />

RESTEasy client integration with the elytron subsystem

With JBoss EAP 7.4, RESTEasy clients are integrated with the elytron subsystem. With this integration, RESTEasy clients can use authentication information, such as credentials and SSL configurations, from an elytron client configuration file.

Access to external credentials over HTTP in the elytron subsystem

With JBoss EAP 7.4, JBoss EAP can authenticate a user based on credentials established externally when using HTTP authentication.

To use this capability, configure a security domain to use the External mechanism when authenticating users.

Use a global directory to distribute shared libraries across deployments

In JBoss EAP 7.3 and earlier versions, you could not create and configure a global directory to distribute shared libraries across deployments running on a server. These capabilities have been added to the ee subsystem.

A global directory offers a better alternative to the global module approach. For example, if you want to change the name of a library listed in a global module, you must remove the global module, change the library’s name, and then add the library to a new global module. If you change the name of a library that is listed in the global directory, you only need to restart the server to make the library name change available for all deployments.

Using a global directory is also a better solution if you want to share multiple libraries across deployed applications.

For more information, see Define global modules in the JBoss EAP Configuration Guide.

Support for read-only server configuration directories

In JBoss EAP 7.3 and earlier versions, servers fail to start if the configuration directory is configured as read-only. JBoss EAP 7.4 introduces the ability to use a read-only server configuration directory. If the configuration directory is read-only, include the --read-only-server-config switch in a command to start the server.

Ability to pass JBoss Module parameters

In the configuration files for JBoss EAP 7.3 and earlier versions, JBoss Modules did not include the ability to pass module parameters. In the script configuration files for JBoss EAP 7.4 you can now add a MODULE_OPTS=-javaagent:my-agent.jar environment variable to pass JBoss Module parameters.

You can use this capability when you previously were required to add the log manager on the boot class path.

Enhancement to the command CLI command

The CLI command command has a new --node-child argument that you can use to edit the properties or manage the operations of a specific child node.

Use the command add --node-child --help CLI command to view a description of the --node-child argument.

New role decoder added to the elytron subsystem

In JBoss EAP 7.4, you can use the management CLI to add the source-address-role-decoder role decoder to the elytron subsystem. By configuring this role decoder in the mappers element, you can gain additional information from a remote client when making authorization decisions.

You can configure the following attributes for source-address-role-decoder:

Exposing runtime statistics for managed executor services

In the previous JBoss EAP release, runtime statistics were not available for managed executor services in the ee subsystem.

You can now monitor the performance of managed executor services by viewing the runtime statistics generated with the new management CLI attributes. The following management CLI attributes have been added:

Using property replacement for permissions files

Users upgrading from JBoss EAP 6 to JBoss EAP 7 were unable to migrate file permissions in the Java policy file to the permissions.xml or jboss-permissions.xml files. It was not possible to use property replacement to migrate file permissions in the permissions.xml and jboss-permissions.xml files.

You can now use property replacement for the permissions.xml and jboss-permissions.xml files.

The property replacement for jboss-permissions.xml and permissions.xml files can be enabled or disabled using the jboss-descriptor-property-replacement and spec-descriptor-property-replacement attributes in the ee subsystem.

Configuring RESTEasy parameters

You can now use the JBoss EAP management CLI to change the settings for RESTEasy parameters. A global change applies the updated settings to new deployments as web.xml context parameters.

You can modify the settings of a parameter by using the :write-attribute operation with the /subsystem=jaxrs resource in the management CLI. For example:

/subsystem=jaxrs:write-attribute(name=resteasy-add-charset, value=false)

See the RESTEasy Configuration Parameters table for details about RESTEasy elements.

Configuring RESTEasy providers

In RESTEasy, certain built-in providers are enabled by default. You can now use the new RESTEasy parameter resteasy.disable.providers in the JBoss EAP management CLI to disable specific built-in providers.

The following example demonstrates how to disable the built-in provider FileProvider:

/subsystem=jaxrs:write-attribute(name=resteasy-disable-providers, value=[org.jboss.resteasy.plugins.providers.FileProvider])

You can use the resteasy.disable.providers parameter with the pre-existing parameter resteasy.use.builtin.providers to customize a specific provider configuration that applies to all new deployments.

New role decoder added to the elytron subsystem

In JBoss EAP 7.4, you can use the management console to add the source-address-role-decoder role decoder to the elytron subsystem. By configuring this role decoder in the mappers element, you gain additional information from a remote client when you make authorization decisions.

You can configure the following attributes for source-address-role-decoder:

The Apache Log4j2 API

In JBoss EAP 7.4, you can use an Apache Log4j2 API instead of an Apache Log4j API to send application logging messages to your JBoss LogManager implementation.

The JBoss EAP 7.4 release supports the Log4J2 API, but the release does not support the Apache Log4j2 Core implementation, org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core, or its configuration files.

Default global stateful session bean timeout value in the ejb3 subsystem

In the ejb3 subsystem, you can now configure a default global timeout value for all stateful session beans (SFSBs) that are deployed on your server instance by using the default-stateful-bean-session-timeout attribute. This attribute is located in the JBoss EAP server configuration file. You can configure the attribute using the Management CLI.

Attribute behavior varies according to the server mode. For example:

By default, the attribute value is set at -1 milliseconds, which means that deployed SFSBs are configured to never time out. However, you can configure two other types of valid values for the attribute, as follows:

You can still use the pre-existing @StatefulTimeout annotation or the stateful-timeout element, which is located in the ejb-jar.xml deployment descriptor, to configure the timeout value for an SFSB. However, setting such a configuration overrides the default global timeout value to the SFSB.

Forcing Jakarta Enterprise Beans timer refresh in database-data-store

You can now set the wildfly.ejb.timer.refresh.enabled flag using the EE interceptor. When an application calls the TimerService.getAllTimers() method, JBoss EAP checks this flag. If this flag is set to true, JBoss EAP refreshes the Jakarta Enterprise Beans timers from database before returning the result.

In the previous JBoss EAP releases, the Jakarta Enterprise Beans timer reading could be refreshed in a database using the refresh-interval attribute found in database-data-store. Users could set the refresh-interval attribute value in milliseconds to refresh the Jakarta Enterprise Beans timer reading.

Access to runtime information from Jakarta Enterprise Beans

With JBoss EAP 7.4, you can access runtime data for Jakarta Enterprise Beans. Stateful session beans, stateless session beans, and singleton beans each return different runtime information. For example, the following command returns runtime data for a stateless session bean:

/deployment=ejb-management.jar/subsystem=ejb3/stateless-session-bean=ManagedStatelessBean:read-resource(include-runtime)

Dynamic discovery of Jakarta Enterprise Beans over HTTP

With JBoss EAP 7.4, you can use dynamic discovery of Jakarta Enterprise Beans over HTTP. To use this capability, add a configuration similar to the following to the ejb-remote profile:

<remote connector-ref="http-remoting-connector" thread-pool-name="default">
    <channel-creation-options>
        <option name="MAX_OUTBOUND_MESSAGES" value="1234" type="remoting"/>
    </channel-creation-options>
    <profiles>
        <profile name="my-profile">
            <remote-http-connection name="ejb-http-connection" uri="http://127.0.0.1:8180/wildfly-services"/>
        </profile>
    </profiles>
</remote>

Global configuration of compression for remote Jakarta Enterprise Beans calls

With JBoss EAP 7.4, you can configure compression of calls to remote Jakarta Enterprise Beans globally. To configure compression globally on a stand-alone client, specify the default.compression property in the jboss-ejb-client.properties file. To configure compression globally on a server, include the default-compression attribute in the <client-conext> element in the jboss-ejb-client.xml descriptor file in the application deployment unit.

<jboss-ejb-client xmlns="urn:jboss:ejb-client:1.4">
    <client-context default-compression="5">
        <profile name="example-profile" />
    </client-context>
</jboss-ejb-client>

Configuring the wildfly.jpa.skipquerydetach persistence unit property

You can configure the wildfly.jpa.skipquerydetach persistence unit property from the persistence.xml file of a container-managed persistence context.

The default value for wildfly.jpa.skipquerydetach is false. Use this setting to set a transaction-scoped persistence context to immediately detach query results from an open persistence context.

Configure wildfly.jpa.skipquerydetach as true, to set a transaction-scoped persistence context to detach query results when a persistence context is closed. This enables a non-standard specification extension.

For applications that have the non-standalone specification extension jboss.as.jpa.deferdetach set as true, you can also set wildfly.jpa.skipquerydetach as true.

Integrating Elytron with web services clients

You can now configure web services clients to use Elytron automatically to obtain the credentials, the authentication method, and the SSL context.

If you use the web services client and assign configuration properties to it using the JBossWS API, you are not prompted for credentials or required to accept server certificates if the valid configuration is in the Elytron client. The following authentication methods are supported:

The configuration is specified by the <webservices/> element in wildfly-config.xml.

Ability for RESTEasy 3.x to access all standard MicroProfile ConfigSources

RESTEasy 3.x can now access all standard MicroProfile ConfigSources. The following additional ConfigSources are also added to RESTEasy 3.x:

Previously, these capabilities were only included in RESTEasy 4.x. With this update, RESTEasy can access configuration parameters with or without the MicroProfile ConfigSources. In the absence of a MicroProfile Config implementation, RESTEasy falls back to the older method of gathering parameters from ServletContext parameters and init parameters.

Configuring SameSite cookie attribute

You can now configure the SameSite attribute for cookies in the current JBoss EAP release with a samesite-cookie predicated handler in the undertow subsystem. With this handler, you can update your server configuration without having to change your applications. This enhancement supports changes to the processing of cookies that were recently implemented in major web browsers to improve security.

Ability to pause a topic

With JBoss EAP 7.4, you can pause a topic in addition to pausing a queue. When you pause a topic, JBoss EAP receives messages but does not deliver them. When you resume the topic, JBoss EAP delivers the messages. To pause a topic, issue a command similar to the following example:

/subsystem=messaging-activemq/server=default/jms-topic=topic:pause()

To resume a topic, issue a command similar to the following example:

/subsystem=messaging-activemq/server=default/jms-topic=topic:resume()

Artemis network health checks

With JBoss EAP 7.4, you can check the health of the network using the following Artemis network health check configuration parameters:

For example, to check the network status by pinging the IP address 10.0.0.1, issue the following command:

/subsystem=messaging-activemq/server=default:write-attribute(name=network-check-list, value="10.0.0.1")

Support for some technologies are removed due to the high maintenance cost, low community interest, and better alternative solutions.

Platforms and features

JBoss EAP deprecated the following platforms in version 7.1. These platforms are not tested in JBoss EAP 7.4.

JBoss EAP 7.4 does not include the Wildfly SSL natives for these platforms. As a result, SSL operations in Oracle Solaris platforms might be slower than they were on previous versions of JBoss EAP.

RESTEasy Parameters

RESTEasy provides a Servlet 3.0 ServletContainerInitializer integration interface that performs an automatic scan of resources and providers for a servlet. Containers can use this integration interface to start an application. Therefore, use of the following RESTEasy parameters is no longer supported:

Eclipse MicroProfile capabilities

The following Eclipse MicroProfile capabilities that were included as technical preview in JBoss EAP 7.3 are not included in JBoss EAP 7.4 beta:

These capabilities are now part of the JBoss EAP Expansion Pack (JBoss EAP XP). Install the JBoss EAP XP for full Eclipse MicroProfile support in JBoss EAP. For complete information about support for Eclipse MicroProfile and JBoss EAP XP, see the JBoss EAP XP lifecycle and support policies page.

Some features have been deprecated with this release. This means that no enhancements will be made to these features, and they may be removed in the future, usually the next major release.

Red Hat will continue providing full support and bug fixes under our standard support terms and conditions. For more information about the Red Hat support policy, see the Red Hat JBoss Middleware Product Update and Support Policy located on the Red Hat Customer Portal.

For details of which features have been deprecated, see the JBoss Enterprise Application Platform Component Details located on the Red Hat Customer Portal.

Platforms and features

Support for the following platforms and features is deprecated:

Operating systems

Databases and database connectors

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) servers

Spring BOM

The following Spring BOM that is located in the Red Hat Maven repository is now deprecated:

Although Red Hat tests that Spring applications run on Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.4, you must use the latest version of the Spring Framework and its BOMs (for example, x.y.z.RELEASE) for developing your applications on JBoss EAP 7.4.

For more information about versions of the Spring Framework, see Spring Framework Versions on GitHub.

Java Development Kits (JDKs)

JBoss EAP OpenShift templates

JBoss EAP templates for OpenShift are deprecated.

eap74-beta-starter-s2i.json and eap73-third-party-db-s2i.json templates

The eap74-beta-starter-s2i.json and eap74-beta-third-party-db-s2i.json templates are deprecated and will be removed in JBoss EAP 7.4.0.GA.

Legacy security subsystem

The org.jboss.as.security extension and the legacy security subsystem it supports are now deprecated. Migrate your security implementations from the security subsystem to the elytron subsystem.

PicketLink

The org.wildfly.extension.picketlink extension, and the picketlink-federation and picketlink-identity-management subsystems this extension supports, are now deprecated. Migrate your single sign-on implementation to Red Hat Single Sign-On.

Managed domain support for previous versions of JBoss EAP

Support for hosts running JBoss EAP 7.3 and earlier versions in a JBoss EAP 7.4 managed domain is deprecated. Migrate the hosts in your managed domains to JBoss EAP 7.4.

Server configuration files using namespaces from JBoss EAP 7.3 and earlier

Using server configuration files (standalone.xml, host.xml, and domain.xml) that include namespaces from JBoss EAP 7.3 and earlier is deprecated in this release. Update your server configuration files to use JBoss EAP 7.4 namespaces.